join senate candidate richard blumenth blumenthal. but ts trip is more about fundraisin fundraising. vick, connecticut is now part of save the senate fire wall for this democrat white house? >> right and democrats now thinking about turn thinkable, not only is president obama who won connecticut by 20 points just guys upside down in the polls in terms of his approval rating. but now richard blumenthal, the much beloved attorney general in connecticut ahead of worldwide wrestling entertainment linda mcmahon in that same latest poll. the president will be there for two fund-raisers. and he moves over to greenwich, connecticut for a private fund-raiser at a private home. don't know what the total haul is going to be, but blumenthal is going to need plenty of it.

linda mcmahon has already thrown $20 million at her campaign. she's got ads, she's got yard signs. and that fight is on. it's a smackdown, can we call it a smackdown in connecticut? >> look, we're trying to keep the wrestling metaphors to a minimum. >> no, more wrestling metaphors. >> elizabeth warren has a job, sort of. explain. >> another czar, dare we say. the white house is going to be loathe to call it that. elizabeth warren had this idea to create this consumer federal protection agency. of course it was passed as a part of the financial major all bill some months ago, earlier this year, and now the president perhaps dodging, he's certainly dodging a confirmation fight in the senate. he's going appoint her to a special advisory role to oversee the birth of her grandchild, this consumer protection agency.

senators are going to be furious on both sides of the aisle. we have already heard chris dodd say some other favorable things about this maneuver. >>. iran's president is shrugging off a -- nbc's chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell got a rare opportunity to sit down for an exclusive interview with president ahmadinejad inside tehran and she joins us this morning. andrea, it was a fascinating interview, what were your impressions? >> well, he is certainly tough and not backing down at all. not backing away from a fight, confronting the united nations and the rest of the world, particularly of course the united states. and saying that the u.n. watch dog agency, the nuclear watch dog agency has no right to force its inspectors or to choose the

inspectors to go to iran. this is important because the inspectors that they have kicked out of iran are the two top experts on all of this, the two people best trained to know whether they are in fact hiding some weapons components or some startup for a weapons system rather than a peaceful nuclear program that that claim. talking about his resistance to the sanctions and his view that the sanctions are not hurting. >> translator: i would like to say that our nation does not need to play hide and seek whatsoever. even if the u.s. administration increases the sanctions 100 times more, and even the europeans join to impose heavier sanctions, we in iran are in a position to meet our own

requirements. >> but in fact, there are plenty of signs that the sanctions are hurting, and in fact russia and china, two long-time allies of iran have joined in the sanctions push. so this is one thing the administration thinks it has done well which is organizing the world against iran. of course this is not what the president had wanted, he had intended an overture to iran, but that has not worked, as long as they have not disclosed, according to the united states and the u.n. not disclosed all of the program. >> travel home safely, andrea, we can see the full interview of andrea and iranian president ahmadinejad. lots of interesting information there, and we know with him you have to read between the lines, stuff doesn't just get lost in translation, it gets lost in that diplomatic dialogue. pope benedict is in britain. first of all he made a dramatic

admission, on the start of his first trip to the uk hoping to head off widespread criticism. the amazing thing, stephany is that this is the first trip by a pope, official trip, state visit in five centuries? >> yeah, that's exactly right. it goes back to henry the viii. he wanted a divorce, he asked the roman catholic church to grnt it, he was worried he was going to go to he election l, so he created an entire new church. that created a split and a rift that actually still exists today and it's on the agenda of the pope during his four-day visit here. also on his agenda is the priest abuse scandal. this is an issue that's of incredible importance not just around the world, but here in this country.

there was a question as to whether he was going to publicly address it. he said that the church didn't act quickly enough or decisively enough in dealing with priest abuse. this is going to be a whirlwind tour for the pope, he's here in edinburgh today, he has met the queen and prince phillip, he's going to meet with prime minister david cameron and the big highlight of course that everyone's looking forward to, scottish sensation susan boil will be serenading the pope tonight in glasgow. >> that will be something else. >> stephanie gosk, covering a once in 500-year story now. >> once in a civilization. >> we'll move on to the weather, first igor, which we just love the name of that storm, then julia and then karl. julia is expected to make landfall right before the

weekend. bill karins joins us, you must be working day and night with all these storms. >> no one's at risk here, but we can't say the same for mexico. hurricane center just gave an update. it's stronger than it was supposed to be and it also looks to be a little further to the south. it's going to be have big implications for the cities there right along the gulf, as this storm makes landfall friday night. it's way to the southern gulf. texas is not going to be affected. but this storm will likely be a category 1 hurricane, there is a chance for it to be a category 2 hurricane as it makes landfall friday night. this is the new forecast actually just in, as the computer automatically updates from the hurricane center. they're not calling for a category 2 landfall, all of a sudden, a weak tropical storm, now a category 2 hurricane. as far as igor goes, this is just an incredible storm, this

is the size of texas itself and it's also a category 4. bermuda is still in the line of fire. we're talking about six to ten-foot waves arriving on friday and saturday, possibly ten-plus foot waves. you see the curve away from the east coast, but that little red line goes right over bermuda. bermuda is this little tiny island, so we're still three or four days away, the odds of it getting right in the eye is still very slim. you wouldn't want to be in bermuda come sunday if you have a choice. >> and bill, we're already on k and here we are in the middle of september, as a miami guy tracking these things through the alphabet, you grow up with it. what more is coming? are we in that stage where every three or four days another one is developing off the coast of africa there. >> these storms are so big, they have picked up a lot of energy,

they're also slow moving so the ones behind them will have to wait for them to get out of the way. we won't have the lrk named storm, lisa, probably until middle of the next week. >> sit still active as it has been so far? >> usually the first week in september traditionally is the peak. so far the second week of september has been. i think it's slowly going to wind down, remember 2005, we had storms through november. >> you never know, and all it takes is one. >> remember wilma, that was late october. >> bill karins, all of this staying very busy with all of these hurricanes. coming up, tuesday's tea party wins have democrats celebrating sort of, maybe surviving is a better word. will they make the most of this republican family feud? up next, we're going to game it out with the dnc chairman tim kaine. and why more people are losing their homes now than at the worst of the crisis.

is the basket case holding back the recovery? it's senate fire wall day, he's up in connecticut trying to save a senate seat that wasn't supposed to need saving. you're watching the daily rundown on msnbc. ♪ [ male announcer ] ever have morning pain slow you down? introducing bayer am, an extra strength pain reliever with alertness aid to fight fatigue. so get up and get goin'! with new bayer am. the morning pain reliever. long summer days, and not enough sleep. what i wouldn't do for a do-over. [ female announcer ] neutrogena® clinical skincare, exclusive ion2 complex combined with activating cream helps restore collagen depleted skin. neutrogena clinical skincare is clinically tested to undo the look of a year's worth of skin aging in just 4 weeks. do-overs do exist. [ female announcer ] clinical skincare. neutrogena. #1 dermatologist recommended brand.

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really what we're doing here in washington has united the republican party. >> well, that was senator jim demint. the man who's becoming all powerful inside the republican party. he predicts they'll have a good turnout in november.

>> let me ask you this, it seems like certainly our poll and all the polls you have seen show this enthusiasm gap, republicans are excited to vote, democrats aren't. i ask you, if the very control of congress is at stake here, why can't you get your democratic voters excited to come out and vote? >> well, i think they're going to be excited come election day, we're still weeks out and we have got a great plan that involves the president and a field effort that we have been building for the last year and a half. i will acknowledge that there's energy on the other side, but it's not all energy that's directed at democrats. this primary season, four months long, every primary night produced a good news story for democrats. we didn't weaken our hand at all during the primary season, but in a whole series of races where we frankly thought we were going to have a very difficult shot, we now have very credible opportunitieses to win because of what's happened on the

republican side during this campaign season. >> is that a slogan to go, hey, we're not as bad as those guys? >> no, i was just answering the question, the message is the contrast, it's between the democratic party that's been doing heavy lifting, doing important things, small business lending finally looks like it's going to get over the hump because of the vote that was taken two days ago which is a very big thing and whether it's small business lending or equal pay for women. we have got a lot we can talk about but it is now that the primary season is over, the full picture is painted about who the other guys are and we're definitely going to talk about the wing of that party that has the upper hand that's talking about social security privatization, that's talking about repealing wall street renortherr reform, repealing what's put us in the lost decade. >> the argument among democrats and certainly from president obama is this notion that a vote

for republicans is a vote for bush economic policies. i know when we looked at it in our poll, that message has not resonated, i think 50% of people in our poll think that the republicans actually have new ideas. so assuming you don't believe that's the case, why is your message not penetrating? >> i think people are starting to pay attention between labor day and election day. hey, i'm glad the election isn't today. i was really glad when i ran for governor in 2005 that the election wasn't until november. we have got more work to do certainly, but i think the issue, what, you know, is very clear that the republican leadership has told america what they're going to do if they get control. and it is going back to policies that were policies that helped us get into this tail spin, tax cuts only for the wealthiest, repealing key protections like wall street reform that were take on the try to prevent what we saw for the last decade.

the only thing which i guess we underestimated here, is that when we talk about going back to the policies of the bush era, we might have underestimated it, when we talk about going back to social security, they go back to hoover. americans don't want to go backward, they may not be happy with where we are, but i don't see anybody saying that we want to go back to the situation we were in that cost us jobs and family income during the last decade. >> if two years ago democrats dominated the primary season, it was democrats and republicans were trying to tell us, oh, no, no, no, it's just that there was just a lot of more interesting races on the republican side. but that enthusiasm did translate in november, that did mean something, 2006 we saw this same thing, that did mean something. you're now at a deficit, something like a 4 million

deficit if you look at the turnouts of the primaries. this has to be a huge concern and i guess i ask you, why do you think democrats are not engaged right now? >> well, you know, again, i'm going to dispute that notion, we do have to do work on the energy of our voters between now and election day. >> you can't dispute the fact that they haven't come to the primaries, they haven't showed up to vote. >> primary turnout is a function of where there are hot and contested races and what we have seen to the hotly contested races have been overwhelmingly on the republican side because of the civil war that's going on within the republican party. so if you have a hot battle between a republican moderate and a tea party candidate that's generating a lot of intensity within the republican party and you have a democrat that's running unopposed or where the battle isn't so intense, you can say, gosh, more republicans turned out than democrats, but that doesn't tell you much about the general election. the reason this is a different thing that the 2006-2008, is

because while some numbers are showing enthusiasm gaps, fwwhat they're also showing is that the polling for approval is very, very low. look at the polling about republicans, even a poll i saw this morning, people's impressions of republicans and their ideas are extremely low. so again, we have got to paint the contrast, the president is heavy out on the road and we have been building up a field effort for the last year and a half to help our candidates on the ground which we think is at the end how you win elections. like any midterm election, we're facing a headwind, the economy makes it tougher, but we don't mind a tough battle. >> in order to generate enthusiasm, do you plan to get more aggressive? especially on this issue of the tea party, we hear behind the scenes, democratic officials talking about these candidates are wing nuts, they're saying aggressive things. are you going to string a bunch

of these things together and put it in an ad? >> we're going to be very aggressive. it's not the pea partea party a longer, it's the republican party, there's no longer a functional differentiation of them. the tea party has taken over the republicans. the candidates are getting kicked out and the moderate voters are finding that very distasteful which gives us a real opportunity to grab them during these midterm elections. >> tim kaine, former chairman of the democratic national committee. coming up, speaking of the tea party, out of nowhere, who is christine o'donnell, the woman who won tuesday night in delaware. plus in today's decision 2010. candidates on both sides are trying to distance themselves from any party labels. it's not just democrats anymore. we'll show you the ads and you try to guess the party

affiliation. fascinating. but first our washington speak, pen and pad, it's a briefing for reporters that does not include cameras, only the reporter and his or her notebook and pen or pencil. it's kind of old school. >> we should at least call them pen and i pass. ipads. >> we'll be right back.

you know, it's supposingly the conventional wisdom that democrats are trying to distance themselves from their own parties from florida to virginia to michigan. watch. >> people in this district are mad and i'm mad too. >> you took on congress. standing up against a congressional pay raise. voting against the health care bill because it costs too much. and going against his own party, he voted against the wall street

bailout. >> i must ask myself ten times a day what is washington thinking? we're fed up and so am i. that's why i voted against bailing out wall street. i went to work for michigan. >> those are the three democratic house incumbents, but it's not just house democrats, mike castle, mike newman, even the grandson of richbd nard nix. ties to the republican establishment especially if you carry the title of congressman could be a career ender this year. republican and democrat running this year who are avoiding the party label completely. can you guess which party these candidates belong to? take a look. >> bill saved a lot of jobs. >> and he created a lot more. >> bill young has always created jobs in florida. >> this successful program created jobs, jobs, jobs.

>> this is an ordinary man who does extraordinary things. >> i want to move in the direction of policies to benefit working families and middle class americans. >> i'm looking into the future and he's looking into the past. >> businessman scott mitchell. >> when you're in a business, one thing keeps you going, looking at someone and saying you're hired. washington is full of people who have never done that. >> you decided you wanted something different. so i said no to congressional pay raises and yes to middle class tax cuts and worked with republicans to cut $120 billion in waste. i'm patrick murphy and i approve this message. >> those are four ads, the first one was a republican, bill young. then you had a democrat. republican from virginia and then patrick murphy, a democrat from pennsylvania. as you can see, none of them are advertising their own party label doing their best sometimes

to hit the other side trying to do some association with the other party, but even then, you don't hear the party label at all. it's fascinating and a reminder, remember, both parties are unpopular these days. the question is, folks are going to hold their nose and vote which way are they going to vote? after tuesday, the playing field pretty much is set, and with delaware moving from a likely republican pickup to what a lot of people think is a likely democratic hold, a lot more attention from both parties focused on the battle in some other states. there's kentucky where the republicans released its first attack ad. trying to use a favorite bluegrass pass time to go after jack conway. florida republican groups who were once allied groups are now going against him. and connecticut where republicans hope the $40 million linda mcmahon has promised to spend can put that state in play, maybe replace delaware and then there's west virginia,

which republicans may now have to count on for their 51st vote. the polls have tightened and the democratic governor joe mansion is doing everything now possible to avoid a reverse mike castle scenario. he went after republican john racy this week. he put up two ads, both attacks on racy. >> john racy's been attacking joe manchin's character. joe manchin always stands up for what he believes, but what does john raes, believe? a 23% sales tax on everything you buy, doing away with the minimum wage and r ar. >> west virginia and connecticut. now that delaware is gone. republicans want to make the case they can win the senate. it's a little harder now. but people ought to be caral that democrats are holding the

senate. the president believes connecticut part of the fire wall, i talked to democrats, they know west virginia's part of their fire wall too. but they don't know how to help mention beyond throwing more money in there if they can and going after raese. coming up, illegal drug use soaring to levels not seen in a decade. is it the white flag of surrender for america's war on drugs? and the tax cuts, will it or won't it hurt the recovery? and it may be the most stubborn part of the recovery, the housing basket case, why it's as bad as ever. in delaware, what do candidates who are elected office do on return day? the answer and more coming up. trust me. trust me. ya i like that. trust me.

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let's take a quick look at what's driving thursday. >> we're just a few minutes away from president obama's speech at the export council meeting. the president will travel to stanford, connecticut to campaign for richard blumen thal. the president is expected to pass the small business -- better access to credit and the incentive to hire more workers. and later this morning, john boehner holds his weekly briefing, this is his first since the end of the primary season. other stories making headlines on a thursday, secretary of state hillary clinton in the west bank today meeting with palestinian president mahmoud abbas.

there's another wildfire raging in california this morning, hundreds of residents have been evacuated from the southern sierras. that fire has burned over 6,000 acres. more than 1,000 firefighters and two dozen aircraft are currently fighting those flames. in the gulf, national incident commander thad allen says the final sealing of the well that gushed oil into the gulf for months is finally sealed. illegal drug use rose 9%. the sharp rise is attributed to eroding attitudes about the harm of illegal drugs. >> i think the economy sometimes has something to do with that stuff too. the republican senate candidates winning primaries with tea party support have come from political obscurity to now of course the national spotlight. >> the latest candidate to stun the political world, christine

o'donnell. you spent quite a bit of time with her now over the last 72 hours, nobody knew who she was. we spent a lot of time trying to get to know her. joe miller out of alaska, probably the next senator out of there. christine o'donnell, a lot of people don't believe she's going to be a senator, but she has raised money overnight. tell us, is she as wacky as mike castle was telling people she was? >> when you had time to spend with her, she was not quite the cartoon that she's made out to. that's pretty true of anybody, really it is. and it is more vivid because we don't know a figure like the tea party candidates so these things stand out. here's what my take was, warm, pleasant, easy on camera, likes to talk to people, very comfortable talking to voters, here's what voters told me. not only conservatives, but even some who say they were democrats or independents, liked her because she was different. liked her because she was not

the incumbent, so i took from that, both ideological support from her and simply the kind of voter anger we want somebody new support. which explains why she did pretty well. they actually got more voters turning out than they even expected so she won and she won big. now on some of her views and things, that's always in the eye of the beholder, but when people say she's not crazy positions, conservatives think she's not so crazy and some of her views have to do with work she did as a conservative catholic when she was advocating for nonprofit groups, sort of giving their positions and so forth and it's more personal and not something she would bring into her campaign, that's her position today. >> let's boil down what it is that people have concerns about and i don't mean just democrats. republican leaders like karl rove say she's not electable, not ready for prime time, what's

the case against her? >> if a candidate has financial problems, tax problems, that's automatically disqualifiesing. this year people are a little more sympathetic to that. she's had problems with the irs, she doesn't have a track record of solid employment. she says she's had hard times, her view is that she has worked hard and come through, she says the kind of work she's done, as a consultant with nonprofits, it's hard to make a living. >> she has an opponent, the man's name is chris coons. >> he is well liked, considered a good guy campaigner, says he will talk about issues, he says she's extreme but he will run a clean campaign and says he will take her seriously. >> their first candidate forum tonight. coons versus o'donnell.

>> joe biden wishes he had gotten into the race. >> every nomination is worth having add bill bradley, dick gephart, all those guys that didn't run in 2002. new numbers show the housing crisis is still driving hundreds of thousands into foreclosure. >> this is one of the most stubborn problems in the recession. the numbers of people who are not paying their mortgage. this is one of those issues where the government has really poured a lot of resources into trying to fix the foreclosure crisis and frankly not had that much success. >> i got to think as i'm standing inside a foreclosure house here that the white house is really finding this difficult to swallow, these numbers are really stunning and troublesome. let's take a look at the statistics here and you can just see one in 381 u.s. homes now are in some stage of foreclosure. and of course the states that

are in the worst shape, number one, in nevada, where one in 84 homes is in foreclosure, florida one in 155 homes are in foreclosure. and arizona one in 165 homes from in some stage of foreclosure. we take a look at what states are responsible for all the homes that are in foreclosure, california with just their sheer size, 20% of the homes there, 17 in florida, michigan, illinois, arizona. and i'm in ft. lauderdale, if we take a look at the issue here, one in 111. this home when it was built was selling by the builder for $700,000. they're asking 380,000 zlrz. the 3wir8d built 70 homes in this area, 60% of them are in foreclosure. it's just really troublesome numbers. >> but kerry, the issue was, if you look at these states, it's not hard to realize, these are people that were probably trying

to buy second homes, florida in florida, nevada and arizona. flipping homes, where you buy it early from the developer and hope that it somehow gets more value when you sell it again. so how many of those foreclos e foreclosures and i know this is probably hard to get statistically, but maybe anecdotally, but how many are foreclosures are some sort of rental property or vacation property or flipping property. >> it was mostly flipping, really the idea of rental or vacation properties. the rentals didn't happen. in fact that's what people who are stuck with these homes are trying to do,ing especially down here in south florida. so folks in downtown miami who bought million dollar condos are lucky to get $2,500 a month in rent from renters. so it's -- for renters, it's been amazing market. so the real thing i think is part of the troublesome thing here is when you look at the

numbers, the home i'm in sold for $700,000, the exact same house next the door, they're living there, they look at the drop in the value and they say, do we continue to pay our mortgage, or do we just pile on, and bail out and add to another home that adds to this pile of noer closures. >> and therein lies the problem. well the white house and republican leaders as you know are in a standoff over those so-called bush tax cuts, each side pouncing on the slightest opening to push their policy agenda forward. >> but what do the key players on wall street want to see from washington when it comes to this contentious issue? >> trish reagan is opposed to the call on cnbc. i want to ask, you've got alan greenspan who admits, i have never advocated this before, but he is so concerned about the deficit, he says let them all expire, let these taxes go up because the country can't afford these tax cuts at this time.

how many people on wall street share chairman greenspan's view? >> i can tell you very few. i can tell you, chuck, people are concerned about the deficit, they feel that the way to solve that issue is to stop the stimulus spending on all these various infrastructure programs that are taking a long time to make their way into the economy and the feeling is you cannot allow these bush tax cuts to expire, most especially on the wealthy because the economy is in such a fragile time. every economist i talked to that works on the street, every investor i talked to are very concerned about this. there's economic date to back all this up. so it's not just the wealthy. actually the top 5% of all american earners account for 40%, roughly 40% of consumer spending. so the thinking, from the economic argument is that if you -- if you basically raise taxes on this top 5%, then

effectively, you're going to hurt consumer spending. consumer spending we all know accounts for about 2/3 of overall gdp, the overall economy, so the key to this recovery is getting consumers to spend again. so therefore why would you raise taxes on the group that accounts for the majority of consumer spending? that's the argument behind this. >> but i have to say that, especially here in the white house, they cite economists and i think it's noncontroversial that say studies show that the wealthiest americans are the least likely to spend the couple hundred dollars or whatever it ends up being in the tax cut they're more likely to save it because they don't need the money as much. >> it's not the case, though, because if you look at every -- i'm curious about the studies and certainly most of them that we're seeing within the business community are showing exactly the opposite. the reason being -- >> hang on there, trish.

moodies, this is the guy is sort of the gold standard for both parties, this tax cut issue was last on a list of 11 items that had an influence on consumer spending the stock market was number one that had an influence on consumer spending. >> when they see, you know, look at what happened just two careers ago with lehman brothers, you saw a huge pull back in consumer spending because a lot of wealthy investors thought oh, my gosh, i don't know what's going to happen so they pull back. we're in a different situation right now. and the feeling is if you actually start to choke off their ability to spend, you're essentially choking off the america economy. 40% of consumer spending is the top 5%. it's a number that's hard to argue with. in that sense. >> it's interesting, trish

reagan. i think what's so confusing for many americans is you have a lot of economists, a lot of studies, a lot of them seem inconsistent. >> here's the stimulus. republicans and democrats, also those were going to spur consumer spending instead they pay down debt. >> of all the things you can do to stimulate the economy, they're at the bottom of the list. okay let's do our trivia. in delaware what do candidates for elected office do on what they call return day? >> on the thursday after an election, winning and losing candidates go to georgetown delaware and ride together in carriages to receive the bipartisan voters. and bury the hatchet in a box of lewis beach sand, the tradition dates back to 1872. i like the tradition. i think the hatchet is still sitting in his back.

>> it seems cathartic, two days after. maybe you need a little more time. it may be whispered on the hill, are some senators just too hold? ken strickland brings us the latest in what some outgoing senators now feel fry to say. fritz holland once said there's no better -- but first, white house soup of the day, it's really not a soup, it's chili. >> we're not going to go through this, it's just chili, you continue do chicking and something else chili. by the way, it's not chili outside. it's another one of those 90-degree fall days. >> and they're already breaking out the winter nonsoups. my doctor said most calcium supplements...

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can earn you a free night -- words alone aren't enough. our job is to listen and find ways to help workers who lost their jobs to the spill. i'm iris cross. we'll keep restoring the jobs, tourist beaches, and businesses impacted by the spill. we've paid over $400 million in claims and set up a $20 billion independently-run claims fund. i was born in new orleans. my family still lives here. i'm gonna be here until we make this right.

it's an age old question on capitol hill, literally, how old

is too old to serve in the senate. this is one of the things that's whispered about in the halls of congress, but nobody actually res to speak it no one dares to speak it out loud, at least until now. >> ken strickland has been interviewing the nine ongoing senators. speaking anonymously, one even told you that age played a part in his decision to retire. ken, we got to ask, you know, you hear this all the time and, yet, these guys allow, don't ever try to push these guys out the door. i understand the respect, but it really does do a disservice to the united states senate, does it not? >> it depends on who you ask. if you ask anybody over 8 o, they would say no. here's how we got to the point. in the course of doing these interviews, i can't think outside of a personal scandal affecting a member, i can't think of a more sensitive area of conversation around the united states senate. that was not one of the questions i ever asked. during the conversation with one of the senators i said, what

would it take to stay for re-election? and he said, after seeing what happened to their friend and colleague, who they respect and admire, robert byrd, one member said i couldn't see that kind of lifestyle for myself. so t does beg the question, so, i wanted to get some context and i talked to the senate historian. first, let me throw out a cup of the facts. 48 senators won re-election beyond the age of 75. a lot of the members will say there are plenty of members who are up there in age who are still very effective, very sharp and knew exactly what they're doing, but the term of a senator is six years. and the difference in age between 75 and say 81 from a mental or health standpoint can really have an impact on the way they perform. some of the duties involved in the senate aren't just voting. every county in their state. the other point that the

historian made is that for a lot of these senators and for a lot of members generally in congress, they only served public, they only served public office. so, by the time they're that old, they acquired a lot of seniority and chairman of a committee and it is hard to give that up. chuck dodd said there is a benefit to having the senior members around here. they serve as mentors. chris dodd said it's almost like for the younger members, the benefit of not having grandparents. no forced term limits they'll have to live with forever. >> i'm sure it's great to have the institional memory. on the other hand, there have been cases and we don't need to name names where you wonder if some of these guys lucid, basically being wheeled out to the floor and the staff tends to enable it. anyway, ken, fascinating issue. thanks for taking it on. >> thank you very much. read more of ken's exclusive interview. this might be as good a piece of

journalism about this united states senate. no one has dug into this the way ken strickland has. all this week on politics.msnbc.com. full transcript of all the interviews. really a political junky and senate junky's dream. an extra strength pain reliever with alertness aid to fight fatigue. so get up and get goin'! with new bayer am. the morning pain reliever. ♪ [ upbeat instrumental ] [ rattling ] [ gasps ] [ rattling ] [ laughing ] [ announcer ] close enough just isn't good enough. - if your car is in an accident, - [ laughing continues ] make sure it's repaired with the right replacement parts. take the scary out of life with travelers. call or click now for an agent or quote. [ female announcer ] start your morning...

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that's it for "the daily rundown" today. >> coming up, chris jansing. >> don't miss "andrea mitchell reports." i will be in for andrea. john kerry will be here live and we'll see you back here tomorrow. >> his response on the ahmadinejad interview. host: could switching to geico really

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